THE record books show that Wanderers beat Gary Megson’s West Brom 5-2 on aggregate to book themselves a Cardiff showdown with Preston in the 2001 Division One play-off final.

But it was nowhere near as comfortable a victory as the statistics suggest. With 80 minutes gone in the first leg at the Hawthorns, Wanderers were trailing 2-0 to goals from Jason Roberts and Lee Hughes and their dreams of Premiership football were in danger of being shattered for the second year running. But they were breathing easier when Gudni Bergsson pulled one back, and they were punching the air in delight when Per Frandsen kept his nerve to equalise from the penalty spot with just two minutes to go.

There was still a lot of tension going into the second leg, but when Bergsson scored after just 10 minutes, there was no stopping Sam Allardyce’s upwardly-mobile Whites.

Bolton still needed a magnificent performance from Colin Hendry at the heart of the defence – the Scotland international making up for a poor display in the first game – but when Anthony Barness set up Ricardo Gardner for Wanderers’ second on 63 minutes it was all over bar the shouting.

All that remained was for Michael Ricketts to make it three in the 90th minute for his 23rd goal of the season and the bandwagon headed for Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium and a match chairman Phil Gartside reckoned was worth £40 million to the winners.

Tell us about a Wanderers match that is special to you by emailing gsharrock@theboltonnews.co.uk or write to “Memory Match”, Sports Desk, The Bolton News, Newspaper House, Churchgate, Bolton BL1 1DE.